Half-Life 2 did have an official launch date at some point in time... until Valve was attacked by a group of hackers that stole the source code and maps for the game project.
Hopefully there won't be any delays this time -- no reason to be, unless they get hacked again.

I'm not that annoyed, (it's a sweet machine), I just hope that it won't be entry-level by the time either of those two come out. HL2 and D3 are the only games I'll ever upgrade for... until HL3 or D4:-)

Ugh...after Ion Storm butchered Deus Ex: Invisible War by designing it for the Xbox first, I'm NOT looking forward to Thief III any more; I know it'll simply be more of the same - low frame rates, inconsistent graphics, small areas and shallow gameplay.

This one is "the game that liscensed the Thief title". It's not being produced by the guys at Looking Glass studios, because Looking Glass no longer exists. Don't expect it to have anything to do with the other Thief games.

Actually, it's being designed by Ion Storm. Guess who's one of the big shots there? Warren Spector - the same guy who was the mastermind at Looking Glass.

That said, as another poster pointed out, Ion Storm just put out Deus Ex: Invisible War, which sadly forced me to remove Warren from my list of deity-like, infallible designers. Thief 3 will be running on the *exact* same engine as DX:IW (in fact, there are more than a few references to it in the DX:IW ini files). While it's possible it may improve betwee

I expected as much since we never saw the release of Half-Life. I've retired my Windows boxes, and I'm done with dual-booting. I still have RTCW running great, and can play my buddy, who is running it on OS X. I'll stick with that, unless I have to run HL2, and then I'll try WineX, but it's not the solution I'd like.

The last I read was that it made full use of DirectX 9 for everything. If this is true, then it's unlikely that it will ever be released for anything other than Windows / XBox. A shame really, I'd have bought an OS X version...

Well, personally I never cared for Half-Life so I'm not looking forward to Half-Life 2. My poison was Counter-strike. I wish they'd port that to something a little more open than Valve's crappy platform. How about make Counter-strike a Quake 3 mod so the rest of us can play it?

Once upon a time I actually played a lot of HL mods (to be honest HL itself i ok, but the true reason it was so popular was the mods - CS in particular). Configured wine, tweaked the settings, the whole monty. I also - like many GNU/Linux admins - administered servers, and public servers at that. The number of Linux servers was actually a reason why HL had so many players.

After this it became clear that Valve really didn't give a damn about rewarding the Linux community with a

The number of Linux servers was actually a reason why HL had so many players.

No, the reason why HL has had so many players is because people like the game. People wanted to play it, so they set up servers. Valve released a linux server because it's a good idea, so people often chose to set up linux servers.

After this it became clear that Valve really didn't give a damn about rewarding the Linux community with a client version. Much to the opposite, HL2 was being tought from the ground up to be Windows-only.

Umm, why should they reward anybody ? They didn't ask anyone to set up linux servers. There are perfectly well running windows servers. They just gave you the option, and you took it.

To make it short I sold my HL CD's, shut the servers down and replaced them with Q3 and UT. Many Linux admins were doing the same, since it really looked like Valve was spitting in the face of the people that helped them. I have never touched HL since then (nor any of the mods).

So you care more about what OS the game server is running than the game itself ?
Btw, I guess most people care more about the game than the server's OS. As you can see from gamespy.com's stats page, HL has (maybe ten times) more players than Q3 and UT players combined.

So, basically, I believe in supporting companies that support me (and the Linux community) for their effort. With so many good games of the genre available for Linux it isn't even difficult.

"Your support effort" is nothing compared to "the real work they actually have to do" in order to get a DirectX 9 game running on linux (and btw, it is actually difficult).

No, the reason why HL has had so many players is because people like the game. People wanted to play it, so they set up servers. Valve released a linux server because it's a good idea, so people often chose to set up linux servers.

That people like the game (actually, like the *mods*. If not CS HL would be dead long ago) is a given. But - and this might be specific for where I live - if not for the availability of Linux servers there would be not enough places for people to play. This was akin to UT.

What I keep wondering is, why don't they, say, *make it not quite as hackable*?

It's not like we don't know how to do it. You don't send the client information that they don't need (say, the position of players that they can't see), and you check to make sure the returned data is sane (for example, the player is traveling on foot more slowly than 200mph, the player isn't walking through solid obstacles, etc.)

Obviously it's not nearly as possible to get rid of things like bots - we're pretty much stuck with

You don't send the client information that they don't need (say, the position of players that they can't see)

And then you fend off the complaints of all your customers who notice that when someone comes around a corner in your competitors games, they can be seen smoothly running into view, whereas when someone comes around a corner in your game they instantly "blink" into position a fraction of a second later when the server has made sure that yes, you really can see them. Avoiding this doesn't mean your server has to send every player the location of every other player, but just sending clients the locations of enemies they might see soon would be enough to let cheaters get in the first shot in many confrontations.

and you check to make sure the returned data is sane (for example, the player is traveling on foot more slowly than 200mph, the player isn't walking through solid obstacles, etc.

Good advice, but it seems to have already been taken on the FPS games I've played. Did Half Life 1 really allow cheats like this without a modified server?

That is not how I remember it. Wallhacking, which as I understand it is a driver issue that is very difficult to code against, and speed cheats, which were defeated shortly after they appeared, appeared long before CS went to retail. The only real cure for cheaters was active server moderators. Still is. Server mods, which owe their existance to the open source, could discourage certain kinds of griefing and cheating, but there is no substitute for a good moderator.

Did they fix anything beyond the DRM pieces that leaked with the game? The game was seriously incomplete, so have they taken advantage of their time to do things right this time, or have they just fscked with DRM?

Of course, you dont work on a game or any large project front to back. Later parts of the game would be finished before early parts. Whats more, its not like any large set of source code is sitting in one place on a server. What was stolen is no doubt a chunk of checked out code from a source code repository. In otherwords, it was whatever that programmer needed, to work on what ever he/she was working on and not the full project. Other then when you do an alpha/beta/release build you dont often see the ful

well, code leak can't be the reason for these delays anyways. they must have knew they weren't going to be able to ship it for last december even when they were saying they'd ship it in september or so, had the hype engine rolling and all.

blaming the delay then on the source leak was just retarded, if not outright lying.

'summer' release at this point is as good as 'sometime, maybe' them having missed the day so many times already that I got zero confidence on them shipping in summer.

Half-Life has had one of the longest lives (in terms of popularity) of any video game. I have gone back and played it (the single play) many times, and still do, and the game is from 1998. It is a timeless classic, and its modability has kept its multiplayer alive with CS and Firearms. Most people who actually know something about gaming would say this is the best game ever made.

I of course can't wait for our new Half-Life 2 overlords, but in my mind I won't believe it untill i see it on a brick and morter shelf or available to buy in my steam gui --- yeah right, selling half life 2 over steam "content delivery system" will make the myDoom SCO DOS attack look like a tea party.

I've been dissaponted too many times to believe any date they put out...

As a side note: I saw one of those guide book/strategy guides at Best Buy for Counter-Strike Condition Zero and had to giggle out loud.

If E3 this year is anything like last year's, remember the fact that Vampire uses the same engine.

The queue for Halflife was crazy, stretching around the booth and back again. Vampire on the other hand had hardly anyone interested in it. Knowing it was the same engine, I got about an hour with the guys, going wherever I wanted in the game, getting every last question I could think of answered - while the people who queued for twice as long for the H2 demo got a fraction of that.

I would have more respect for Valve if they just came right out and said "listen, we are running behind. The game won't be out for a few more months." Instead they try to blame it on the source code leak. Sorry, I don't buy it.

ya know.. i agree.. but i can see there side of it... Instead of releasing a game, that has some small bugs and flaws in it (SIN anyone?) and releaseing patches ever few months.

The Code is now out in the open so they have to do a years worth of work in pathching in 6 months.

For example [Rant] i used to play CounterStrike and in the the Halflife game browser, i have many diffrent filters i can choose and SAVE, populated, low ping, empty, linux, dedicated, punkbuster ect.. Halflife didnt ship like that.. it

It's amazing how many times this game has been delayed. Vague promises of 2002, then summer 2003, then Xmas 2003, most recently mid-April 2004, and now summer 2004. It's so bad that HL2 was Wired magazine's #1 vaporware product of 2003 [wired.com].

You're talking about HL2, right? This game was not even confirmed to be in existance until E3 of last year. There might have been rumours that it was being developed, but never anything from Valve until E3, when they released the gameplay videos that were simply amazing. (and took away a lot of D3's thunder)

Team Fortress 2 (or Half-life Fortress as it was called in 98) is the game that should be vaporware...

It's really very simple - if your product's security relies on it's users not having access to the source code, then you have no security. Even IF the network code was leaked (and I've read many reports saying it actually wasn't) then SO WHAT? The source code for my webserver, my ssh server and even my operating system have been "leaked" and guess what? They are still secure. In fact, I (and many other people) consider it to be more secure

1. They're so busy on HL2 that they can't invest the manpower and energy into keeping existing stuff running well and smoothly. Hence, the Steam problems.

I don't the Steam problems are cause by lack of manpower as much as horrible management.You just do not slightly improve on a beta version each time, then code a large set of new features and release it without proper testing.That is what happened with the Steam release, a total failure.

Far from it. The code that was leaked is chock-FULL of *HACK-HACK*'s and *TODO*'s. Granted, 5 months after the game's initial planned release date, I'd hope that it looks at least a little bit better, but calling the leaked code near perfect is more than a bit rose-colored-glass.

I can guarantee* that many finished perfectly running apps you use are full of *HACK-HACK*'s and *TODO's*The code ran fine, so I don't care how it looks.

And the occasional bug and crash could've easily been fixed in 5 months.

Yeah, I was really impressed with the videos from the previous e3, and even though its been more than a long time they really don't need to rush it. Especially since the single player story mode will be the meat of it. If it was another deathmatch fps I'd expect them to push it out and patch it and such, but when it gets released, I want to play it straight through, completed. So, I think it's unfair to expect them to be expected to get it done ahead of when they think it should be done. I also have to

The "simple" theft of the source code is not the reason to the extended delay, its simply that they where just not finished and have required this much more time to get it to a release state. Securing the network code or even outright changing it would only require a couple months at most to fix to prevent cheaters; so that option is not valid either. I think they screwed up on stating the release date and this was an excuse that would satisfy reporters.

I totally agree... this stinks of hoax. I didn't believe them at all when I heard about the introduction of keyloggers on their system. I mean honestly, they don't have norton or mcafee installed on their systems? Right! And no one has been caught after a "thorough investigation?"

But, hey, this is just speculation. For all I know they did leave their network wide open and they did have a hacker and the release of code wasn't a nice teaser for the final game.

CGN: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has been getting a lot of buzz due to its excellent graphics. What should users with lower-end computers expect from the play of this game? What are the system requirements?

Oleg: Here are the specs for comfortable gaming: P IV-1.4 Ghz / Athlon, 256 Mb RAM, GeForce 4 (or any other card of the same level). The PC hardware market dictates its rules and sets new limits for the games - the slower your computer and the older you video card is

The original HL is incredible work--nobody will deny that. The net play was nothing short of impressive across the board and it only got more enjoyable as follow-on additions came out.

So, like any sequel, it's to be determined if they're riding on the value earned by the original half-life name. This, to me, raises the repeated issue of the nature of first-person gaming improvements. For me (and prolly for most ppl here), the fun of HL1 was in plot solo-play elements, well-done net play, and a decent

I've seen a lot of posters blame the whole hacker incident on the delay. The hack caused a whole host of problems, but almost everyone forgets that the game wasn't going to make the September 2003 release date anyway. Vivendi was already making statements for months doubting the release date was going to be met with Valve consistently stating they were going to make it.

I believe it was around Sept. 20th when Valve and Vivendi admitted that the release was going to be delayed. A few days after that the source was leaked and everyone jumped on that bandwagon. It's know come to light in several HL2 forums that the AI was incomplete and several levels weren't right.

HL2 is an ambitious game and a lot of work goes into creating a AAA title. To have it delayed doesn't surprise me in the least. To blame it all on the source leak is unfair. Valve just didn't make their milestone dates, plain and simple.

I'm actually more excited to hear that the Arx Fatalis guys are using the source engine than Troika or even Valve.

I'm not a big fan of fps games, and Troika have really failed to deliver with their other games in my opinion. They can only trade under the grace of having worked on Fallout for so long.

Arx Fatalis was a diamond in the rough though. A trip into a atmospheric gameworld with some oldskool crpg details that developers seem to forget about these days. I'd like to see what they could do with more

I upgraded my existing machine with a GF FX5950 - mostly so I could play with this game. But with the leaked art of Quake IV and the impending release (eventually) of Doom III and HL2, I'm already saving to build a machine just for gaming. Quad Raptors in Raid-0 with a motherboard full of ram, at 26 years old - this is likely to be the last time I can justify dropping a few grand on building a machine. I play games less and less now, due

No! The game was delayed because the GAME WAS NOT DONE. Come on people! Do some reading and digging before you post shit about Valve/HL2. I know not everyone can be an expert on the Valve code-theft scandal, but I'm tired of reading the same old story with the same old misinformation. I wish Valve would fess-up to the fact that they were either:

A) Going to ship a basically unfinished game and use the masses as beta-testers (maybe even alpha!)

" We have learned today from AMD and confirmed with Valve here at E3 that there will be a x86-64 port of the Half Life 2 client. This is in addition to the x86-64 port of the Counterstrike server that will be available soon. We saw the Half Life 2 demonstration and it looked amazing."

While that's all nice. I think it's the server that gains the most from being ported to 64bits anb taking advangtage of oodles more memory.

Although there are no benchmarks to say either way, I don't think that a 64bit client would see that much faster execution. Now a x86-64 client optimized for 3dNow2(or whatever is in the AMD Chip) instructions would see some nice speedups.

Unfortunately they don't (and according to a source at Valve, won't) make a FreeBSD server binary, so my dual opteron server is sitting struggling running the 32-bit linux version of CS under emulation.